A team of scientists from the UK, Germany and France suggested they could have downplayed the importance of surface ocean currents. Debris from the aircraft was carried to shore by the currents, known as Stokes drift. Analysis of objects washed ashore could have allowed the MH370 crash site to be located according to the study, published in the Journal of Operational Oceanography.

In total nine bits of debris from the stricken aircraft have washed up along western parts of the Indian Ocean.

However investigators failed to establish crucial information including how long they made landfall before being discovered, their exact buoyancy and how long they spent floating in coastal waters.

Lead investigator Dr Jonathan Durgadoo commented: “Ignoring Stokes drift in the simulations can lead to major errors, as we have demonstrated with the MH370 example.

“For any application where surface drift is studied, Stokes drift should be included to provide more precise tracking results.”